The demon stood amidst a mountain of monster corpses, his silhouette framed by the eerie green bioluminescence of the dungeon. Black veins crawled across his face, pulsing with a sickly rhythm, and his lips curled into a smug grin.
"I am Alister Beck," he murmured, his voice like stones grinding together. "It is a pleasure to meet you, little ones. Though I fear you won't live long enough to return the greeting."
The air turned frigid.
It wasn't merely a drop in temperature—it was the oppressive weight of an A-rank soul bearing down on us, crushing our lungs and stiffening our limbs.
Sarah's hands trembled, yet she did not retreat. She whispered a rapid incantation, her eyes glowing with a soft, milky radiance.
[HOLY ART: BENEDICTION OF THE VALIANT]
Golden ripples of mana washed over Edwin, mending the microscopic tears in his muscles and flooding his body with renewed stamina. Strength surged through him.
Edwin stepped forward.
At that moment, he looked every bit the legendary scion he was—silver hair shimmering, posture straight, his jaw set with righteous fury.
"Who are you?" he demanded, his voice echoing through the chamber with authority. "What business does a demon of your caliber have in a student assessment dungeon? And how did you bypass the Academy's spatial wards?"
Alister chuckled, the sound dry and rasping.
"Questions from a lamb at the slaughter? How quaint."
While Edwin held the demon's attention, Sarah moved.
Quietly.
Her mana did not flare. Instead, it gathered high above us, concealed within the dungeon's shadows.
[LIGHT MAGIC: RAY OF JUDGMENT]
The ceiling ignited.
Pillars of searing white light thundered down like divine wrath, striking with surgical precision.
BOOM!
The ground shattered. Dust and scorched mana flooded the air.
When the light faded—Alister was gone.
He reappeared ten meters away, casually brushing dust from his shoulder. A thin scratch marked his cheek, a single drop of black ichor dripping to the floor.
The smile vanished.
"It seems," he said coldly, "that you children need to be taught a lesson in manners."
He vanished.
My Astral Perception screamed—not toward Edwin.
But behind us.
"Sarah, move!" I shouted.
Too late.
Alister materialized directly in front of her. His fist, wrapped in a swirling vortex of purple miasma, slammed into her abdomen.
The sound was not that of a punch.
It was structural failure.
Sarah was launched like a broken doll, her body crashing into the dungeon wall with enough force to cave the stone inward. Blood splattered across the floor in a gruesome arc. She collapsed, unconscious, her breathing shallow and uneven.
"SARAH!" Edwin roared.
He lunged forward, his speed no longer human—his body a blur of silver light.
[SWORD ART: COMET STRIKE]
He struck with the full weight of his momentum.
Alister did not move.
He raised one hand and caught Edwin's Sword.
The shockwave cracked the floor beneath them, but the demon's arm didn't budge.
"Weak," Alister whispered.
He countered with a short, brutal jab to Edwin's chest.
The sound of ribs snapping echoed through the chamber.
Edwin was sent flying, crashing into the opposite wall. Blood spilled from his lips as he slid down the stone, barely conscious.
Alicia watched with eerie calm.
Her expression was detached—like an observer watching an insect struggle. But beneath that stillness, her mana plummeted toward absolute zero.
Before she could chant—
The atmosphere shifted.
The air around Edwin grew heavy. Gravity itself seemed to double.
His sword, discarded on the ground, began to tremble.
It slid across the floor as if drawn by an unseen force—then snapped into his hand.
Edwin's eyes fluttered open.
They were no longer blue.
They burned with unstable white light.
The mana around him condensed—not mist, but sharpened, solidified.
A razor-thin shroud of silver energy enveloped his body.
He's evolving.
Faced with death, the protagonist's bloodline was forcing a breakthrough.
His sword aura surged—
From [Beginner-Rank]
To [Sword Expert-Rank]
—in a single heartbeat.
Edwin rose.
His killing intent was so dense it felt like needles against the skin.
He vanished.
Even Alister's eyes widened.
SHING!
Edwin appeared behind the demon, blade flashing.
Alister twisted at the last moment, but it wasn't enough. A deep, cauterized gash tore along his side.
Edwin didn't stop.
He spun, blade moving in lethal rhythm.
[SWORD AURA: SEVERANCE]
A crescent of compressed aura ripped through the air.
Alister raised his arm—
Too slow.
The aura sliced through demonic hide and bone like a heated wire.
A black arm spun through the air before landing in the dirt.
"GAAAH!" Alister roared, staggering back. "As expected of the son of the Sword Master! A Sword Expert at seventeen? If I let you live, you will become a calamity for my race!"
His eyes turned bloodshot.
He tapped into his A-rank core.
A storm of [CORRUPTION SPELLS] erupted—shadow tendrils and miasmic bolts flooding the chamber.
Edwin parried, slashed, and dodged with impossible grace.
But the gap in raw mana was absolute.
After one final clash that shook the entire floor, Edwin's aura flickered—
—and died.
He collapsed.
Total depletion.
The demon, missing an arm and breathing heavily, glared at the fallen hero.
"Now," he snarled, "for the rest of you."
I clicked my tongue and stepped over a fallen pillar.
"Honestly, Edwin," I said calmly. "You really enjoy making things difficult for the rest of us."
I walked toward Alister, hands in my pockets, expression blank.
"You," he spat, "the weakling who hid in the back. Do you wish to die next?"
"Not really," I replied, stopping ten meters away. "But you're in the way of my dinner—and you've made a mess of my classmates."
I didn't wait.
[ASTRA SUPPRESSION: OFF]
The air didn't grow heavy.
It stopped moving.
Starlight ignited within my blood.
[VOID-STEP]
I vanished.
Alister swung wildly—but I was already behind him.
I didn't draw a blade.
My fingers stiffened like a spear, coated in compressed starlight.
[MANA COMPRESSION: STAR-POINT]
I drove my hand into his back—directly into his secondary mana heart.
No sound.
Only a silent implosion.
Alister screamed as his mana flow reversed violently.
"WHAT ARE YOU?!" he shrieked, lashing out with a tail of shadows.
I ducked.
The tail sliced the air above my head.
I countered with a kick fueled by [BREATH SYNCHRONIZATION].
[STELLAR STRIKE]
My foot connected with his jaw, launching him skyward.
Before he could recover, I raised a finger.
[STELLAR MANA AUTHORITY: BIND]
The ambient mana obeyed.
Chains of golden starlight formed, wrapping around his limbs and throat, slamming him back into the stone floor.
I walked toward the pinned demon.
My crimson eyes glowed with predatory, celestial light.
"You talk too much," I whispered, "for someone who's about to become stardust."